From LBPOSTSports.com: “Sometimes the ball doesn’t want to go in,” Millikan coach Rod Petkovic told us after his team’s 1-0 loss to El Toro in the CIF championship game. Unfortunately for the Rams, sometimes the ball doesn’t want to go in two games in a row, which was more or less the case in their 2-1 overtime loss to the El Camino Real Conquistadors in the first round of state playoffs yesterday. The Rams possessed and passed the ball well for most of the game, but just couldn’t get the good chances into the net.
Video by J.J. Fiddler
Early on, it looked like it might be a blowout similar to Millikan’s 5-0 thwomping of Fountain Valley in the first round of the CIF-SS playoffs. The Rams got all the chances early, and after watching his team miss a few of them, Petkovic paced the sidelines, saying, “It’s coming, it’s coming.” Within sixty seconds, Millikan’s Edgar Melendrez took the ball at the top of the box, and sent a one-hopper into the goal, beneath the reach of El Camino Real’s keeper, Keon Parsa. In just the fifth minute, it was 1-0 Millikan.
Unfortunately, though the Rams would continue to get their chances, that was the last goal they’d score this season—Jose “Chicken” Torres missed on a turn-and-shoot, Cesar Ramirez put a free kick off Torres’ head, only to see Parsa make the leaping grab…and so it went. In the tenth, El Camino Real’s Erikson Penate played a free kick ricochet, and managed to put it by Rams keeper Jorge Becerra, tying the game. The Rams had three more chances, but simply couldn’t convert.
In the second half the Rams continued to press El Camino Real, but still couldn’t convert. The furious pace of Manny Espinoza helped create three free kick opportunities for Millikan, and all three were well-struck, but Parsa protected the upper shelf of his net and batted all three away. Then towards the end, it looked like El Camino Real would end it, as they got two free kicks and three corners within the span of ten minutes, but Millikan’s defense (which stepped up as best it could missing sweeper Manuel Estrada, who’s been excellent all season) and the acrobatics of Becerra kept the net clean. One last time, we were headed to overtime.
But, an hour away from their school, and fresh off the City Section CIF championship, the Conquistadors decided to roll the dice, as their coach decided to go for the win, yelling, “Everybody up!” It was clear a goal would be scored in the 15-minute sudden death period, either by the pressuring Conquistadors, or the countering Rams. Once more Millikan got a few opportunities, but it went El Camino Real’s way halfway through, as Penate scored his second goal of the evening, a header off a free kick that shot straight to the back corner of the net, out of Becerra’s reach.
Click here for the rest of the story by Mike Guardabascio…